Tatar-Mongol invasion of Rus'. Khan Batu - the fair-haired military Tsar of the Rus

Khan Batu is the grandson of Timur - Genghis Khan, son of Jochi Khan. Modern historians are forced to admit this fact, since chronicles have been preserved and it is written about this in other documents.

Well, and of course, historians see him as a Mongoloid.
But let's look at it logically. Batu, or more precisely Batu Khan, belongs, like his grandfather Genghis Khan, to the Borjigin family, i.e. must have blue eyes, blond hair, be at least 1.7 m tall and other signs of belonging to the white race. However, there is no information on the portrait; it was diligently destroyed by falsifiers of Russian history.

Khan Batu - military king of the Rus

Of course, examining the bust, it is impossible to draw a conclusion about the color of the eyes and hair. This is what the false historians were counting on when they left the artifact. But the value lies elsewhere. There is not the slightest sign of a Mongoloid in the outlines of the bust - a typical European is depicted with a thick beard and Slavic eye shape!

But the second source is “Batu’s capture of Suzdal in 1238. Miniature from the “Life of Euphrosyne of Suzdal” of the 16th century. List of the 18th century":

A miniature depicting Khan Batu in a crown, who, accompanied by his army, enters the city on a white horse. His face is not Turkic at all - purely European. And all the characters in the fighting squad are somehow Slavic, isn’t it noticeable?!

So Khan Batu, the grandson of Genghis Khan, was not far from his famous grandfather in appearance.
Then why did historians pay so little attention to Bath in their chronicles?
Who really was Batu Khan? Why did his activities displease the Romanov falsifiers so much that, unable to come up with a plausible version, they decided to destroy the existing chronicles?

In another illustration from the chronicle, Batu Khan appeared in the image of a Russian Tsar with the same Russian warriors:

Batu is one of the outstanding politicians of the 13th century. He played an important role in the history of many states in Asia, Eastern Europe and Rus'. Until now, few people know the description of his life. Being a significant historical figure, Batu remains unknown and forgotten.
How is it that historians and historical biographers have not paid attention to this famous figure?

Let's consider the official version of history, created by German specialists commissioned by the Romanovs and forcibly imposed, first on the captured Moscow Tartaria, and with the advent of the Great Jewish Revolution, extended to the entire territory of the former empire.

Information about Batu is rather superficial. Khan from Mongolia, grandson of Genghis Khan. Batu (12O8-1255) organized a large-scale campaign against Rus' and the countries of Eastern Europe. This data can be found in many biographical dictionaries.
The most important thing that Batu left behind was the state. It is now known as the Golden Horde. In different centuries, the Principality of Moscow and the Russian Empire became its successors, and today this list is supplemented by Kazakhstan. Few people know that the Horde is an Army, an Army. The army of the Vedic Empire or Great Tartaria, united over the entire vast territory.

Khan's life is comparable to a political detective story. It is a series of riddles and secrets. Their discovery is new horizons for researchers.
These mysteries begin from the moment of birth and last until the end of Batu’s life. The very life of this mysterious khan can be divided into three stages. Each stage left a significant imprint on the history of many Asian and European countries, and of course, Russia.

Batu's birth occurred in the year of the earth-snake. Batu is the son of the eldest son of Genghis Khan. Father - Jochi Khan himself was a conqueror; before Batu was born, his father conquered Transbaikalia and the Kyrgyz of the Yenisei. Geographically, Batu’s birth supposedly took place on the territory of modern Altai.

According to Russian chronicles, Batu troops conquered Volga Bulgaria, destroying almost the entire population. Khan paved the way to Rus'.

Historians ask the question, why was the campaign against Rus' necessary at all? After all, the conquest of Volga Bulgaria made it possible to be secure for the rest of one’s life. But despite everything, the more dangerous and difficult hike took place. Along the way, some other peoples of the Volga region were conquered.
There is an opinion that the khan was guided not only by his own decisions. His strategies and directions were influenced by relatives and comrades in the campaign, who dreamed of military glory.
The Ryazan principality was the first to stand on Batu’s path. The invasion began with the strange murder of Ryazan ambassadors, including the prince’s son. The murder is strange because usually the Mongols left their ambassadors alive, no matter what conflicts occurred. Perhaps the ambassadors seriously offended the Mongols in some way, but a more plausible version is about a contract killing, like the murder of Prince Ferdinand to create a pretext for the start of a world war.

Domestic historians claim that the khan decided to turn around because of the stubborn struggle of the Russian people in the rear of his troops. The probability of this fact is small, because his troops left Rus', leaving no one as governors, and the Mongols did not set up garrisons. Who would the Russians have to fight? Moreover, fighters from Southern Rus' took part in the campaigns of the Mongol troops against the Ugrians and Poles.

European experts insist that the European knights, possessing excellent weapons and seriously trained, overcame the advance of the light barbarian cavalry. This is also a false statement. One need only remember the fate of the famous knighthood of Liegnitz and Chaillot and the psychological state of the knight sovereigns. Batu left Europe, since the set goals of destroying Khan Kotyan, as well as preserving his possessions in safety, were completed.

Batu died in 1256. Even his death is also shrouded in mystery. There were versions of poisoning and even death in one of the campaigns.
Contemporaries did not even think about such a banal death of such a significant historical person - a legend was needed. Although the death of the khan was completely natural, it was due to a chronic rheumatic disease.

And yet, why did Batu receive such a small place in the annals of history? Finding an answer today is not so difficult.

Chinese and Mongolian sources contain a scanty amount of information about Batu. While he was in China, he did not show himself in any way. Mongol chroniclers considered him an enemy of the khans from Karakorum and wished to keep silent about him so as not to anger their overlords

The Persian chronicles are somewhat similar. Since the heirs of Sain Khan fought for the lands of Iran and Azerbaijan with the Persian Mongols for more than a century, the chroniclers at the palace chose to write less about the leader of their opponents.

Western diplomats who visited Batu generally refused to make any statements about him. They kept silent about their opinion about the khan. Although, according to some information, the Mongol ruler is very kind to his subordinates, he instills great fear in them, is able to hide his emotions, wants to show his unity with the rest of the Genghisids, etc. etc.

Among the chronicles of Rus' and the West, the falsifiers left only records corresponding to the version of the Mongol invasions, which did not write anything good about Batu. So he entered the chronicles as the destroyer and destroyer of Rus' and Eastern Europe.
Later chronicles were based on previous records and further strengthened this status of Batu.
This position was so strong that when, already in the 20th century, orientalists from the USSR were looking for positive aspects of the khan’s activities (promoting the development of trade, cities, the ability to fairly resolve disputes between vassal rulers), the data of official history and ideology crowned these searches with failure.

Only towards the end of the 20th century did historians begin to destroy the entrenched stereotype. For example, L.N. Gumilyov put Batu on a par with Charlemagne, noting that the latter’s power did not last long after the death of the leader, and the Golden Horde had a long history after the death of its founder.

One way or another, no one has yet devoted any serious research work to this great khan. Probably, specialists are still stopped by the meager information base, rather contradictory materials that do not allow them to project a complete picture of Batu’s life, and the unspoken ban on such research plays a significant role. But the lack of a database and prohibitions do not stop falsifiers of history.
In view of all of the above, to this day Khan Batu remains a mysterious and mysterious figure. We will remove the layer of falsehood through joint efforts, but the Russian truth will still find its way.

Genghis Khan's grandson Batu Khan is undoubtedly a fatal figure in the history of Rus' in the 13th century. Unfortunately, history has not preserved his portrait and has left few descriptions of the Khan during his lifetime, but what we know speaks of him as an extraordinary personality.

Place of birth: Buryatia?

Batu Khan was born in 1209. Most likely, this happened on the territory of Buryatia or Altai. His father was Genghis Khan's eldest son Jochi (who was born in captivity, and there is an opinion that he is not the son of Genghis Khan), and his mother was Uki-Khatun, who was related to Genghis Khan's eldest wife. Thus, Batu was the grandson of Genghis Khan and the great-nephew of his wife.

Jochi owned the largest inheritance of the Chingizids. He was killed, possibly on the orders of Genghis Khan, when Batu was 18 years old.

According to legend, Jochi is buried in a mausoleum, which is located on the territory of Kazakhstan, 50 kilometers northeast of the city of Zhezkazgan. Historians believe that the mausoleum could have been built over the khan's grave many years later.

Damned and fair

The name Batu means "strong", "strong". During his lifetime, he received the nickname Sain Khan, which in Mongolian meant “noble,” “generous,” and even “fair.”

The only chroniclers who spoke flatteringly about Batu were Persians. Europeans wrote that the khan inspired great fear, but behaved “affectionately”, knew how to hide his emotions and emphasized his belonging to the Genghisid family. He entered our history as a destroyer - “evil,” “cursed,” and “filthy.”

A holiday that became a wake

Besides Batu, Jochi had 13 sons. There is a legend that they all gave up their father’s place to each other and asked their grandfather to resolve the dispute. Genghis Khan chose Batu and gave him the commander Subedei as his mentor. In fact, Batu did not receive power, he was forced to distribute the land to his brothers, and he himself performed representative functions. Even his father’s army was led by his elder brother Ordu-Ichen.

According to legend, the holiday that the young khan organized upon returning home turned into a wake: a messenger brought the news of the death of Genghis Khan.

Udegey, who became the Great Khan, did not like Jochi, but in 1229 he confirmed the title of Batu. Landless Bata had to accompany his uncle on the Chinese campaign. The campaign against Rus', which the Mongols began to prepare in 1235, became a chance for Batu to gain possession.

Tatar-Mongols against the Templars

In addition to Batu Khan, 11 other princes wanted to lead the campaign. Batu turned out to be the most experienced. As a teenager, he took part in a military campaign against Khorezm and the Polovtsians. It is believed that the khan took part in the Battle of Kalka in 1223, where the Mongols defeated the Cumans and Russians. There is another version: the troops for the campaign against Rus' were gathering in the possessions of Batu, and perhaps he simply carried out a military coup, using weapons to convince the princes to retreat. In fact, the military leader of the army was not Batu, but Subedey.

First, Batu conquered Volga Bulgaria, then devastated Rus' and returned to the Volga steppes, where he wanted to start creating his own ulus.

But Khan Udegey demanded new conquests. And in 1240, Batu invaded Southern Rus' and took Kyiv. His goal was Hungary, where the old enemy of the Genghisids, the Polovtsian Khan Kotyan, had fled.

Poland fell first and Krakow was taken. In 1241, the army of Prince Henry, in which even the Templars fought, was defeated near Legnica. Then there were Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary. Then the Mongols reached the Adriatic and took Zagreb. Europe was helpless. Louis of France was preparing to die, and Frederick II was preparing to flee to Palestine. They were saved by the fact that Khan Udegey died and Batu turned back.

Batu vs Karakorum

The election of the new Great Khan dragged on for five years. Finally, Guyuk was chosen, who understood that Batu Khan would never obey him. He gathered troops and moved them to the Jochi ulus, but suddenly died in time, most likely from poison.

Three years later, Batu carried out a military coup in Karakorum. With the support of his brothers, he made his friend Monke the Great Khan, who recognized Bata's right to control the politics of Bulgaria, Rus' and the North Caucasus.

The bones of contention between Mongolia and Batu remained the lands of Iran and Asia Minor. Batu’s efforts to protect the ulus bore fruit. In the 1270s, the Golden Horde ceased to depend on Mongolia.

In 1254, Batu Khan founded the capital of the Golden Horde - Sarai-Batu (“Batu City”), which stood on the Akhtuba River. The barn was located on the hills and stretched along the river bank for 15 kilometers. It was a rich city with its own jewelry, foundries and ceramic workshops. There were 14 mosques in Sarai-Batu.

Palaces decorated with mosaics awed foreigners, and the Khan's palace, located on the highest point of the city, was lavishly decorated with gold. It was from its magnificent appearance that the name “Golden Horde” came. The city was razed to the ground by Tamrelan in 1395.

Batu and Nevsky

It is known that the Russian holy prince Alexander Nevsky met with Batu Khan. The meeting between Batu and Nevsky took place in July 1247 on the Lower Volga. Nevsky “stayed” with Batu until the fall of 1248, after which he left for Karakorum.

Lev Gumilev believes that Alexander Nevsky and Batu Khan’s son Sartak even fraternized, and thus Alexander allegedly became Batu Khan’s adopted son. Since there is no chronicle evidence of this, it may turn out that this is only a legend.

But it can be assumed that during the yoke it was the Golden Horde that prevented our western neighbors from invading Rus'. The Europeans were simply afraid of the Golden Horde, remembering the ferocity and mercilessness of Khan Batu.

The mystery of death

Batu Khan died in 1256 at the age of 48. Contemporaries believed that he could have been poisoned. They even said that he died on the campaign. But most likely he died from a hereditary rheumatic disease. Khan often complained of pain and numbness in his legs, and sometimes because of this he did not come to kurultai, where important decisions were made.

Contemporaries said that the khan’s face was covered with red spots, which clearly indicated ill health. Considering that maternal ancestors also suffered from pain in their legs, then this version of death looks plausible.

Batu’s body was buried where the Akhtuba River flows into the Volga. They buried the khan according to Mongolian custom, building a house in the ground with a rich bed. At night, a herd of horses was driven through the grave so that no one would ever find this place.

Manipulation of words and several decades of ideological processing led to the fact that we all believed in the “Mongol-Tatar yoke”, and in the “primitiveness of the Slavs”, and in many other things, which turned out to be banal and cheap lies...
But it is very beneficial for someone that the myth of the Mongol-Tatar yoke continues to exist and misleads people around the world. It's time to stop passing this myth on like a relay baton to the next generation. This myth has nothing to do with the real past and has no value for us...

"Mongol-Tatars" - this is Great Tartaria


Many members of the editorial board of the Vedic Culture magazine are personally acquainted with the inhabitants of Mongolia, who were surprised to learn about their supposed 300-year rule over Russia. Of course, this news filled the Mongols with a sense of national pride, but at the same time they asked: “Who is Genghis Khan?”

From the magazine “Vedic Culture” No. 2.

In the chronicles of the Orthodox Old Believers it is said unequivocally about the “Tatar-Mongol yoke”: “There was Fedot, but not the same one.” Let's turn to the Old Slovenian language. Having adapted runic images to modern perception, we get: thief - enemy, robber; mogul - powerful; yoke - order.

It turns out that the “Tata of the Aryans” (from the point of view of the Christian flock), with the light hand of the chroniclers, were called “Tatars” (there is another meaning: “Tata” is the father. Tatar - Tata of the Aryans, i.e. Fathers (ancestors or older) Aryans), powerful - by the Mongols, and the yoke - the 300-year-old order in the State, which stopped the bloody civil war that broke out on the basis of the forced baptism of Rus' - “martyrdom”.

Horde is a derivative of the word Order, where “Or” is strength, and day is the daylight hours or simply “light.” Accordingly, the “Order” is the Power of Light, and the “Horde” is the Light Forces.

Were there dark-haired, stocky, dark-skinned, hook-nosed, narrow-eyed, bow-legged and very angry warriors in the Horde? Were. Detachments of mercenaries of different nationalities, who, as in any other army, were driven in the front ranks, preserving the main Slavic-Aryan Troops from losses on the front line.

Hard to believe?

All the countries of Scandinavia and Denmark were part of Russia, which extended only to the mountains, and the Principality of Muscovy is shown as an independent state not part of Rus'. In the east, beyond the Urals, the principalities of Obdora, Siberia, Yugoria, Grustina, Lukomorye, Belovodye are depicted, which were part of the Ancient Power of the Slavs and Aryans - Great Tartaria (Tartaria - lands under the protection of God Tarkh Perunovich and Goddess Tara Perunovna - Son and Daughter Supreme God Perun - Ancestor of the Slavs and Aryans).

Do you need a lot of intelligence to draw an analogy: Great Tartaria = Mogolo+Tartaria = “Mongol-Tataria”?

Not only in the 13th, but until the 18th century, Mogolo Tartary existed as real as the faceless Russian Federation now.

The “history scribblers” were not able to distort and hide everything from the people. Their repeatedly darned and patched “Trishka caftan”, covering the Truth, is constantly bursting at the seams. Through the gaps, the Truth reaches the consciousness of our contemporaries bit by bit. They do not have truthful information, so they are often mistaken in the interpretation of certain factors, but they draw a correct general conclusion: what school teachers taught to several dozen generations of Russians is deception, slander, falsehood.

The classic version of the “Mongol-Tatar invasion of Rus'” has been known to many since school. She looks like this. At the beginning of the 13th century, in the Mongolian steppes, Genghis Khan gathered a huge army of nomads, subject to iron discipline, and planned to conquer the whole world. Having defeated China, Genghis Khan's army rushed to the west, and in 1223 it reached the south of Rus', where it defeated the squads of Russian princes on the Kalka River.

In the winter of 1237, the Tatar-Mongols invaded Rus', burned many cities, then invaded Poland, the Czech Republic and reached the shores of the Adriatic Sea, but suddenly turned back because they were afraid to leave devastated, but still dangerous Rus' in their rear. The Tatar-Mongol yoke began in Rus'. The huge Golden Horde had borders from Beijing to the Volga and collected tribute from the Russian princes. The khans gave the Russian princes labels to reign and terrorized the population with atrocities and robberies.

Even the official version says that there were many Christians among the Mongols, and some Russian princes established very warm relations with the Horde khans. Another oddity: with the help of the Horde troops, some princes remained on the throne. The princes were very close people to the khans. And in some cases, the Russians fought on the side of the Horde.

Aren't there a lot of strange things? Is this how the Russians should have treated the occupiers?

Having strengthened, Rus' began to resist, and in 1380 Dmitry Donskoy defeated the Horde Khan Mamai on the Kulikovo Field, and a century later the troops of Grand Duke Ivan III and the Horde Khan Akhmat met. The opponents camped for a long time on opposite sides of the Ugra River, after which the khan realized that he had no chance, gave the order to retreat, and went to the Volga. These events are considered the end of the “Tatar-Mongol yoke.”

A number of scientists, including academician Anatoly Fomenko, made a sensational conclusion based on a mathematical analysis of the manuscripts: there was no invasion from the territory of modern Mongolia! And there was a civil war in Rus', the princes fought with each other. There were no traces of any representatives of the Mongoloid race who came to Rus'. Yes, there were individual Tatars in the army, but not aliens, but residents of the Volga region, who lived next to the Russians long before the notorious “invasion.”

What is commonly called the “Tatar-Mongol invasion” was in fact a struggle between the descendants of Prince Vsevolod the “Big Nest” and their rivals for sole power over Russia. The fact of war between princes is generally recognized. Unfortunately, Rus' did not unite immediately, and quite strong rulers fought among themselves.

But who did Dmitry Donskoy fight with? In other words, who is Mamai?

The era of the Golden Horde was distinguished by the fact that, along with secular power, there was a strong military power. There were two rulers: a secular one, called the prince, and a military one, he was called the khan, i.e. "military leader" In the chronicles you can find the following entry: “There were also wanderers along with the Tatars, and their governor was so-and-so,” that is, the Horde troops were led by governors! And the Brodniks are Russian free warriors, the predecessors of the Cossacks. Authoritative scientists have concluded that the Horde is the name of the Russian regular army (like the “Red Army”). And Tatar-Mongolia is Great Rus' itself.

It turns out that it was not the “Mongols,” but the Russians who conquered a vast territory from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean and from the Arctic to the Indian. It was our troops who made Europe tremble. Most likely, it was fear of the powerful Russians that caused the Germans to rewrite Russian history and turn their national humiliation into ours.

A few more words about names.

Most people of that time had two names: one in the world, and the other - received at baptism or a military nickname. According to the scientists who proposed this version, Prince Yaroslav and his son Alexander Nevsky act under the names of Genghis Khan and Batu. Ancient sources depict Genghis Khan as tall, with a luxurious long beard, and “lynx-like” green-yellow eyes. Note that people of the Mongoloid race do not have a beard at all. The Persian historian of the Horde, Rashid al-Din, writes that in the family of Genghis Khan, children “were mostly born with gray eyes and blond hair.”

Genghis Khan, according to scientists, is Prince Yaroslav. He just had a middle name - Chinggis (who had a rank called “gis”) with the ending “khan”, which meant “military leader”. Batu (father) Batuhan (if read in Cyrillic, it is given by the Vatican) - his son Alexander (Nevsky). In the manuscripts you can find the following phrase: “Alexander Yaroslavich Nevsky, nicknamed Batu.” By the way, according to the description of his contemporaries, Batu had fair hair, a light beard and light eyes! It turns out that it was the Horde khan who defeated the crusaders on Lake Peipsi!

Having studied the chronicles, scientists discovered that Mamai and Akhmat were also noble nobles, according to the dynastic ties of the Russian-Tatar families, who had the rights to a great reign. Accordingly, “Mamaevo’s Massacre” and “Standing on the Ugra” are episodes of the civil war in Rus', the struggle of princely families for power.

At the beginning of the 18th century, Peter I founded the Russian Academy of Sciences. Over the 120 years of its existence, there have been 33 academic historians in the historical department of the Academy of Sciences. Of these, only three are Russians, including M.V. Lomonosov, the rest are Germans. The history of Ancient Rus' until the beginning of the 17th century was written by the Germans, and some of them did not even know Russian! This fact is well known to professional historians, but they make no effort to carefully review what kind of history the Germans wrote.

It is known that M.V. Lomonosov wrote the history of Rus', and that he had constant disputes with German academics. After Lomonosov's death, his archives disappeared without a trace. However, his works on the history of Rus' were published, but under the editorship of Miller. Meanwhile, it was Miller who persecuted M.V. Lomonosov during his lifetime! The works of Lomonosov on the history of Rus' published by Miller are falsifications, this was shown by computer analysis. There is little left of Lomonosov in them.

So the “Mongol-Tatars” are the Great Tartaria! And the three-hundred-year yoke, invented by our enemies, was necessary to hide the truth from us...

In the December days of 1237, there were bitter frosts in the territory between the Volga and Oka. In fact, the cold more than once came to the aid of the Russian armies, becoming a faithful ally in the most dramatic periods of history. He drove Napoleon away from Moscow, shackled the Nazis hand and foot in frozen trenches. But he could not do anything against the Tatar-Mongols.

Strictly speaking, the term “Tatar-Mongols”, which has long been established in the domestic tradition, is only half correct. In terms of the ethnic formation of the armies that came from the East and the political core of the Golden Horde, the Turkic-speaking peoples did not occupy important positions at that moment.

Genghis Khan conquered the Tatar tribes settled in the vast expanses of Siberia at the beginning of the 13th century - just a few decades before the campaign of his descendants against Rus'.

Naturally, the Tatar khans supplied their recruits to the Horde not of their own free will, but under duress. There were much more signs of a relationship between a suzerain and a vassal than equal cooperation. The role and influence of the Turkic part of the Horde population increased much later. Well, in the 1230s, calling foreign invaders Tatar-Mongols was the same as calling the Nazis who reached Stalingrad German-Hungarian-Croats.

Russia has traditionally been successful against threats from the West, but has often capitulated to the East. Suffice it to remember that just a few years after Batu’s invasion, Rus' defeated the well-equipped Scandinavian and German knights on the Neva and then on Lake Peipsi.

The rapid whirlwind that swept through the lands of the Russian principalities in 1237-1238 and lasted until 1240 divided Russian history into “before” and “after”. It is not for nothing that the term “pre-Mongol period” is used in chronology. Finding itself under a foreign yoke for 250 years, Rus' lost tens of thousands of its best people killed and driven into slavery, forgot many technologies and crafts, forgot how to build structures from stone, and stopped in socio-political development.

Many historians are convinced that it was at that time that a lag behind Western Europe took shape, the consequences of which have not been overcome to this day.

Only a few dozen architectural monuments of the pre-Mongol era have survived to us. The St. Sophia Cathedral and the Golden Gate in Kyiv, the unique churches of the Vladimir-Suzdal land, are well known. Nothing has been preserved on the territory of the Ryazan region.

The Horde dealt especially cruelly with those who had the courage to resist. Neither the elderly nor children were spared - entire villages of Russians were slaughtered. During Batu’s invasion, even before the siege of Ryazan, many important centers of the ancient Russian state were put to fire and forever wiped off the face of the earth: Dedoslavl, Belgorod Ryazan, Ryazan Voronezh - today it is no longer possible to accurately determine their location.

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Actually, the capital of the Grand Duchy of Ryazan - we call it Old Ryazan - was located 60 kilometers from the modern city (then the small settlement of Pereslavl-Ryazan). The tragedy of “Russian Troy,” as poetic historians called it, is largely symbolic.

As in the war on the shores of the Aegean Sea, glorified by Homer, there was a place for heroic defense, cunning plans of the attackers, and even, perhaps, betrayal.

The Ryazan people also had their own Hector - the heroic hero Evpatiy Kolovrat. According to legend, during the days of the siege of Ryazan he was with the embassy in Chernigov, where he unsuccessfully tried to negotiate help for the suffering region. Returning home, Kolovrat found only ruins and ashes: “... the rulers were killed and many people were killed: some were killed and flogged, others were burned, and others were drowned.” He soon recovered from the shock and decided to take revenge.

Wikimedia

Having overtaken the Horde already in the Suzdal region, Evpatiy and his small squad destroyed their rearguard, defeated the khan’s relative, Batyr Khostovrul, but in mid-January he himself died.

If you believe the “Tale of the Ruin of Ryazan by Batu,” the Mongols, shocked by the courage of the fallen Russian, gave his body to the surviving soldiers. The ancient Greeks were less merciful: the old king Priam had to ransom the corpse of his son Hector for gold.

Nowadays, the story of Kolovrat has been pulled out of oblivion and filmed by Janik Fayziev. Critics have yet to assess the artistic value of the painting and its historical correspondence to real events.

But let's go back to December 1237. Having ravaged the cities and villages of the Ryazan region, on whose lands the first, most powerful and crushing blow of the entire campaign fell, Batu Khan for a long time did not dare to begin the assault on the capital.

Based on the experience of his predecessors, well imagining the events of the Battle of Kalka, the grandson of Genghis Khan obviously understood: it was possible to capture and, most importantly, keep Rus' in subjection only by centralizing all Mongol forces.

To a certain extent, Batu, like Alexander I and Kutuzov, was lucky with his military leader. Subedei, a talented commander and comrade-in-arms of his grandfather, made a huge contribution to the ensuing defeat with a series of right decisions.

The fighting that also served as a prologue to the siege, primarily on the Voronezh River, clearly showed all the weaknesses of the Russians, which the Mongols skillfully took advantage of. There was no unified command. Princes from other lands, mindful of many years of strife, refused to come to the rescue. At first, local but deep-seated grievances were stronger than the fear of a general threat.

If the knights of the princely equestrian squads were in no way inferior in fighting qualities to the elite warriors of the Horde army - noyons and nukers, then the basis of the Russian army, the militia, was poorly trained and could not compete in military skills with an experienced enemy.

Systems of fortifications were erected in cities for protection from neighboring principalities, which had a similar military arsenal, and not at all from steppe nomads.

According to historian Alexander Orlov, in the current conditions the Ryazan residents had no choice but to concentrate on defense. Their capabilities objectively did not suggest any other tactics.

Rus' of the 13th century was full of impenetrable forests. This is largely why Ryazan waited for its fate until mid-December. Batu was aware of internal strife in the enemy camp and the reluctance of the Chernigov and Vladimir princes to come to the rescue of the Ryazan people. When the frost tightly sealed the rivers with ice, heavily armed Mongol warriors walked along the riverbeds as if along a highway.

To begin with, the Mongols demanded submission and a tenth of the accumulated property. “If we are all gone, everything will be yours,” came the answer.

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The people of Ryazan, led by Grand Duke Yuri Igorevich, defended themselves desperately. They threw stones and poured arrows, tar and boiling water on the enemy from the fortress walls. The Mongols had to call for reinforcements and offensive machines - catapults, rams, siege towers.

The fight lasted five days - on the sixth, gaps appeared in the fortifications, the Horde broke into the city and committed lynching over the defenders. The head of defense, his family, and almost all ordinary Ryazan residents accepted death.

In January, Kolomna fell, the most important outpost on the border of the Ryazan region and the Vladimir-Suzdal land, the key to North-Eastern Rus'.

Then it was Moscow’s turn: Voivode Philip Nyanka defended the oak Kremlin for five days until he shared the fate of his neighbors. As the Laurentian Chronicle tells, all the churches were burned and the inhabitants were killed.

Batu's victorious march continued. Many decades remained before the first serious successes of the Russians in the confrontation with the Mongols.

In 1207, which the Mongols considered the year of the snake earth, Jochi, the eldest son and heir of Genghis Khan, had a son, Batu (in the Russian pronunciation tradition - Batu). Shortly before the boy was born, Jochi conquered the Transbaikal “forest peoples” and the Kyrgyz from the Yenisei, and on his campaign, apparently, he was accompanied by his family. Therefore, it is very likely that Batu’s birthplace is the territory of modern Altai Territory or Buryatia.

The famous grandfather Batu, having begun to divide his possessions between his sons, gave the largest inheritance to Jochi. This inheritance included Western Siberia, Khorezm, the Urals and the promise of all the western lands that the Mongol horses could reach. But Jochi did not have a chance to rejoice at his father’s generosity for long. Genghis Khan suspected his son of treason, and soon Jochi was killed - perhaps really on his father's orders. After the death of his son, Genghis Khan ordered his grandson Batu to be elected ruler of the Jochi ulus, which greatly surprised many noyons. Batu was about eighteen years old, he was not the eldest son of Jochi and did not have time to distinguish himself with any special merits. However, the Noyons did not dare to violate the will of Genghis Khan.

Unanimously elected as his father's successor, Batu, however, received neither real power nor even his own inheritance: he had to distribute all the regions of his father's ulus to his brothers as a sign of gratitude for his election as chief. Ordu-Ichen, the eldest brother, became the ruler of the troops, and Batu’s power was then purely symbolic.

After the death of Genghis Khan in 1227, his throne was inherited by his third son, Ogedei, who, after his election, confirmed the title of Batu and even promised to help in the conquest of the western lands. But in 1230 the Mongols set off to conquer China, and Batu, of course, accompanied his uncle on this campaign. The Qin Empire fell in 1234, and a year later it was finally decided to go to the West. The appointed group of conquerors included all the eldest grandchildren of Genghis Khan, and thus the conquest of the West became a common endeavor. The conquered lands were now to be divided among the twelve Chingizid princes.

The campaign to the West was actually commanded by Subedei-Batur, the most experienced commander of Genghis Khan, but the princes did not want to recognize him as the real leader. The cunning Ogedei left it to the nephews themselves to elect the commander-in-chief, and Batu won the victory in these elections, as he had already taken part in campaigns against the Polovtsians and Khorezm. It must be assumed that the reason for the election was not so much military experience as the fact that the troops were collected mainly in Batu’s domains.

The number of these troops was about one hundred and thirty thousand warriors. Some of them were sent to the lands of the Southern Volga region to fight the Kipchaks, Alans and other tribes. Most of the army moved in 1236 to the once powerful state of Volga Bulgaria, now consisting of semi-independent principalities. Their rulers were at enmity with each other, and some even allied with the Mongols - and a year later Volga Bulgaria became Mongol territory. Judging by Russian chronicles, Batu passed through these lands with sword and fire, mercilessly exterminating the population. Having completed the subjugation of the Bulgars, he continued his campaign to the West - and now he had to conquer Rus'.

The Ryazan principality was the first to be invaded - at the end of 1237, Batu defeated the main troops of the Ryazan princes and in two weeks captured the most important cities, including Ryazan itself. The remnants of the Ryazan army retreated to Kolomna, located on the border of the Vladimir-Suzdal principality, and then Yuri Vsevolodovich, the Grand Duke of Vladimir and Suzdal, came to their aid.

It is curious that when Batu was crushing the Bulgars, Yuri was fighting with the Mordovian prince Purgas, the main Bulgar ally. And the ruin of the Ryazan principality was very beneficial for the Suzdal prince. But on his own territory, the Mongols, of course, were of no use to him, and therefore at Kolomna Batu’s troops met not only with the Ryazan people, but also with the squad of Yuri Vsevolodovich, reinforced by the people’s militia. The advanced detachments of the Mongols were initially thrown back, and in the battle, very successfully for Batu, one of his main opponents, Kulkan, the youngest son of Genghis Khan, died. But soon the main forces appeared, and the steppe cavalry defeated the Russian foot troops. Then Batu took Moscow in five days and moved on the city of Vladimir, the capital of North-Eastern Rus'.

In February 1238, Vladimir fell, and then Batu captured and burned fourteen cities. On March 4, Yuri Vsevolodovich was killed in a fierce battle on the City River, and with the defeat of this last army, Rus' could no longer resist the Mongols in an organized manner. Only Veliky Novgorod remained, and in March the Mongols took Torzhok, the Novgorod forward outpost. This was a show of force, but the Novgorod prince did not respond to the provocation, and Batu turned his troops to the south.

By mid-May, the Mongols took the border Kozelsk, and by the summer Batu was already in the Volga region, where he intended to create his own ulus, considering his campaign completed. Unfortunately, Ogedei, the Great Khan of the Mongols, did not think so and demanded further conquests. Batu’s comrades also desired military glory. In 1239, Batu limited himself to raids on Moksha and Mordvins, went to the devastated Ryazan principality, but by the end of the next summer it became impossible to postpone a serious campaign, and the Mongols invaded Southern Rus' - it was through it that the road to Hungary lay. Batu made an attempt to negotiate with Kiev, but Prince Mikhail ordered the killing of his ambassadors, for which Kyiv paid heavily. In December, after a three-month siege, Kyiv fell.

In Hungary, the Mongols wanted to settle long-standing scores with the Polovtsian khan Kotyan, who had fled there, and therefore they were in a hurry, and Galician-Volyn Rus suffered less than Northern Rus - Batu did not touch some cities at all. But he brilliantly carried out the European campaign of the Mongols, planned by Subedei. The Mongol army, reinforced, by the way, by representatives of the conquered peoples, was divided into three columns, and each of them successfully completed its task.

The northern column, commanded by Genghis Khan's grandsons Baydar and Kadan, went to Poland, where in April 1241 it defeated a combined army of Czechs, Poles and German knights, and then moved to Slovakia and further to Hungary. The second column was led by Batu himself - this part of the army, having crossed the Carpathians, entered Hungary and on April 11 defeated the Hungarian king Bela IV on the Shayo River. At this point, the king had already dealt with the Polovtsian khan, and therefore lost forty thousand Polovtsian soldiers who had left him. Subedei-Baghatur with the third column captured the territory of modern Romania, after which he joined Batu, who was pursuing the Hungarian king. However, Batu, apparently, did not intend to destroy Hungary and even ordered the restoration of the economy, but, nevertheless, this period in the history of the Hungarians is considered one of the most difficult.

The rulers of Western Europe, not ready to resist the Mongols, prepared for the worst, but in the spring of 1242, Batu unexpectedly ordered to turn back. This order still remains a mystery in his biography. Some historians argue that the reason for the Mongols' departure from Europe was the Russian struggle behind Batu's rear. However, the South Russian warriors gladly went together with the Mongols against the “Poles” and “Ugrians,” their ancient enemies. Most likely, Batu simply accomplished what he intended: after all, Khan Kotyan was destroyed one way or another, and the borders of the new possessions were protected. We should not forget that Khan Ogedei died in December 1241. Having learned about this, three influential Chingizids from Batu’s army left the army and went to Mongolia to fight for the vacated throne. The greatest chance of becoming the Great Khan was with Guyuk, the son of Ogedei and Batu's worst enemy, and Batu preferred to meet his accession in his own ulus, and not in distant Europe.

Guyuk was elected Great Khan only five years later. By that time, the last son of Genghis Khan, Jaghatai, had died, and Batu had become the head of the Borjigin clan, from which Genghis Khan himself and all his descendants came. The authority of the head of the Genghisid clan was very great, and the new Great Khan was forced to recognize Batu as co-ruler of the western appanages. Guyuk did not like this situation very much, and in January 1248 he and a significant army went to the borders of the Golden Horde (as the Ulus of Jochi is now called). Officially, he didn’t want so much - for Batu to come to him and express his submission, since he was not present at the kurultai that elected the Great Khan. In fact, it was clear to both Guyuk and Batu that an internecine war had begun, and it would only be stopped by the death of one of the rulers. Apparently, Batu turned out to be quicker - somewhere in the Samarkand region, Khan Guyuk died very promptly, and everyone remained confident that Batu had sent the poisoners to him.

In 1251, another coup d'etat took place: Berke, Batu's brother, and Sartak, his son, came to Mongolia with an army from the Golden Horde, gathered the Mongol Genghisids and forced them to make Monke, Batu's best friend, Great Khan. The new khan, of course, recognized Batu as co-ruler. A year later, supporters of the Guyuk family tried to form a conspiracy, but Monke executed most of the conspirators, and sent some, Batu’s longtime opponents, to Ulus Jochi, so as not to deprive Batu of the pleasure of dealing with them personally. True, later Monke turned out to be not so accommodating at all; he began to strengthen the central government and limit the rights of the ulus rulers. Batu could no longer do anything about this - after all, he himself spoke for the election of Monke as the Great Khan and now could not disobey. It must be said that both rulers were, first of all, statesmen and did not want another split in the Mongol empire, and therefore managed to reach a compromise. Batu allowed a census to be carried out in the Ulus of Jochi and sent part of his army to march on Iran. In turn, Monke recognized the right of control over Russia, Volga Bulgaria and the northern Caucasus for the Ulus of Jochi. Batu’s activities for the autonomy of his possessions bore fruit very soon - already under the reign of his grandson Mengu-Timur (seventies), the Golden Horde turned into a completely independent state.

This state, stretching from the Irtysh to the Danube, was created by Batu Khan. He made Sarai-Batu, a city in the Volga delta, near modern Astrakhan, the capital of the Golden Horde. The Russian principalities became tributaries of the Golden Horde for several centuries, and labels for princely dominion were issued by the ruler of the Mongols.

Khan Batu lived, according to foreign diplomats, like an emperor, having all the required officials and developing the military art of the Mongols, who were famous for surprise attacks, swiftness of cavalry and avoidance of major battles that threatened the loss of soldiers and horses. Batu also became famous for his cruelty, which, however, was not at all surprising for that time.

The founder and first ruler of the Golden Horde died in 1255. His throne was taken by Sartak, the eldest son, confirmed in hereditary rights by the Great Khan Monke.

Information about Batu is extremely scarce, and the personality of this great Mongol is surrounded by legends and mysteries, many of which arose during his lifetime. Batu went down in history as the “filthy” and “cursed” destroyer of the lands of Rus' and Eastern Europe. But there were also positive aspects to his activities - the first khan of the Golden Horde patronized trade, developed cities and, apparently, was fair in resolving disputes among his vassals. In addition, Batu was without a doubt an outstanding statesman - after all, the Golden Horde did not disintegrate after his death, like many powers that lost their founders.